


The Note

by funeralfiona



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 13:26:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4102627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funeralfiona/pseuds/funeralfiona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Internal Affairs wants to make sure Sebastian's interrogation skills are up to par. Sebastian takes the opportunity to get uncomfortably personal with his partner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Note

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first part. The second part almost entire done but its taking forever because the DLCs screwed up the direction I was going. Please give me encouragement to write more if you like it.

Pissed off did not do the feeling justice. A heavy sense of betrayal and personal insult manifested themselves into an acidic burn at the back of his throat. It soured his mouth. Or maybe that was the acid reflux...he hadn’t been eating well lately. He held back the urge to cough up whatever foul tasting thing had crawled into his esophagus and stared the Internal Affairs agent right in the core of his arrogance. 

“I was just reviewed. Check your papers.”

The agent, a pale and square shouldered male with a receding hairline and steel eyes, remained cold and casual.

“We are aware, but in light of recent events we just want to make sure you are up to snuff.” Nothing about him moved, he didn’t fiddled his hands or check the time, only stared down the lion of Sebastian’s rebellion. 

“Recent events. Is that what her disappearance being called?” Sebastian hissed and side-stepped to face the agent. The hallway was long and well insulted, not even the shuffle of his feet resonated. Catching his comments ignored he continued with a little dejection. “A detective's performance should speak for itself. This isn’t even rookie crap and it’s not necessary.” 

The agents face never changed but his voice pinged with amusement. “Then show us it’s not necessary.” He leaned and jerked open a metal door, it squealed in the frame and yawned low. Sebastian entered slowly with their eyes locked. Breaking contact he kicked out a chair and sat with a measured patience. 

“Just in time.”

Sebastian turned to find the man facing down the hall with a professionally cold smile. 

Joseph materialized from the left of the door frame, sighing indignantly and rolling back his white sleeves for comfort. “Lets just get this over with.”

The agent addressed Sebastian and explained.

“We ask your partner to play your suspect, you two are on good terms, right?” Either knowing the answer or not caring for one he closed the door behind Joseph with a painful scrape. 

Joseph signed again and crossed the small interrogation room, giving his partner a welp raise of the eyebrows as he sat in the suspects chair. Sebastian replied with scrutinizing silence. Joseph averted his eyes and shifted uncomfortably. The suspects chair was not meant to be a luxury. The arms were too thin, the seat slippery, all sides sharply cut, and the back stopped midway up the the spine. He dug a rubber heel into the floor to keep himself from sliding off like a wiggly two year old. 

“I guess we should start.” The older man huffed.

A brief nod from Joseph. “Guess so.”

As Sebastian opened his mouth the steel door screamed open again.

“One moment, gentlemen.” The pale agent returned, handcuffs swinging from two fingers.

Joseph’s eyes grew in disbelief. “You can’t be serious.” 

“If we want to do this right…” The agent zipped the hoops around Joseph’s slim wrist and the arm rest. The lean detective gave them a bewildered tug as the agent strut out again. 

Leaning to the side with an irritated grunt Sebastian fished for his cigarettes. “Tell me, agent…” The man stopped and his head twisted sharply. “What exactly am I interrogating Joseph for? What am I trying to get him to admit?” He opened the box, paused as he stared into it, disappointed in the what he saw he returned it to his pocket. That last cigeratte would need to be rationed.

“That’s for you to find out, Castellano. You’re a detective, Oda isn’t a saint, find something.” 

“What?” A sharp eyebrow twitched. He’d had too much to drink last night and too much coffee that morning. 

“If you are so good, detective, get Joseph to confess something….anything.” For the first time since they met that morning the agent betrayed his enjoyment to Sebastian’s face. His thin mouth curled at one edge and his eyes shined. 

Handcuffs clattered. “I didn’t agree to that.” 

The agent didn’t acknowledge the protest, simply stepped out in two steps and paused at the door handle. “Continue.” Then he was gone. 

Joseph’s mouth hung open with a breathless laugh. He instinctively lifted his hand to rub a temple, the bound hand snagged and rattled. He relaxed in exasperation. Inhaling deep he faced Sebastian. “Well, alright.” His partner was still staring hatred into the door, trying to intimidate a ghost. “Seb.” 

Sebastian straightened his back. “Fine…”  
He had nothing infront of him. Just a table, a two-way mirror, tiled walls of a bye-gone era color, and a doe-eye ‘suspect’. His partner blinked and had become steady, ready to calculate. He suddenly realized he knew nothing about Joseph. Yeah, he knew his eating habits, his quirks, knew exactly how he fixed his glasses, could decipher certain silences, he could even pick out his immaculate posture among the inner city crowds like a lighthouse in fog, but he didn’t know Joseph. Even so, just a few days before he’d learned more about Joseph than he ever prefered. But it wasn’t time for that yet. His mind turned. When he finally spoke his suspect’s shoulders bounced.

“So, Joseph…”

“Yes?” Joseph was playing a cooperative criminal. 

“We’ve known each other for a while...” Sebastian leaned back and relaxed his posture. 

“Yeah, I’d say so.”

Sebastian nodded and eyed his work boots spread under the table. “So you’d say we know each other pretty well?” 

Josephs head waved side to side as he rolled his eyes in speculative thought. “Hm, yeah, within reason.” 

“Reason.” Sebastian echoed. His hands were in his pockets and eyes becoming level with his partner. “How many hours a day would you say we spend together?” 

Joseph hummed thoughtfully but answered without hesitation. “Anywhere from six to ten hours. Maybe even more.” 

Unwavering, Sebastian's head bobbed in agreement again. He paused to run his eyes around Joseph’s person and provoked a narrowed-eye response. Satisfied, he continued.

“Do you think it’d be within reason to say it’d be difficult to hide things from a person you see six to ten hours a day? Maybe more?” A thick hand came out of a pocket with a lighter pinched between it’s fingers. The small zippo was speckled with scars. 

Joseph skipped his eyes to it, then back to his partner. “Yeah, I’d say so.” His voice was flattered than before, less humoring. 

A silence lay between them and the overhead light buzzed. Sebastian cleared his throat and knit his brow, as if just considering some puzzling fact. Joseph took in a slow and deep breath.

Eyeing the table in mock thought Sebastian leaned forward and rested his elbows down. “You remember that call we had a few nights ago? Real early, around three am, you remember it?” He looked up and his forehead remained furrowed as he waited. 

Joseph’s back never shifted and his limbs stayed still. “Yeah, that was a long morning.”

“Yeah, it was. I picked you up, remember? Where was it that I picked you up at, Joseph?” The lighter began to spin. Joseph didn’t look at it this time.

“In the Village area, at the park.” 

“Yeah….” The older detective examined the lighter. “ ...the park.” Again there was silence as the lighter twisted, the fluorescent glow smacking the surface. 

A gloved finger hopped on the armrest. Joseph tried to convey annoyance but he was surprisingly anxious, perhaps it was just the caffeine. 

“What were you doing in the park, Joseph?” 

A black eyebrows jumped above the rim of glasses. “Walking.”

The lid of the lighter snapped and dark eyes flinched. 

“At three am? Five miles from your home?” 

The handcuffs rattled with a shrug. “It was a long walk.” There was a pause. “I had been visiting with someone that lives in the area.” 

The lighter snapped again. “Pretty late for a weeknight.” 

Joseph’s brow wrinkled in offense. “I out grew my curfew at sixteen.” 

Sebastian nodded once but didn’t respond. After four heartbeats Joseph continued. “I didn’t want to loiter outside their house and spook the neighborhood, so I met you at the park.” 

“That seems like a decent explanation, a reasonable answer.” The lighter returned to its pocket. “Where was your wife that night?” 

Joseph turned his head away and let out a humorless laugh, mocking the question then turned back. “At home in bed, I assume.” 

“Sad.” 

“You’re full of it.” For the first time that morning there was heat in Joseph’s voice. “I’m done, get to the point.” 

It was Sebastian’s turn to laugh, once, deep in his chest and rough with rust. Teeth peered through his thin lips, his unintentional way of showing dissatisfaction. “You didn’t want me to see who you were with.”

The slanted eyes of his partner didn’t move. It occurred to him suddenly that he couldn’t consciously recall the last time those doll eyes blinked. Had they always been this unreadable? He resumed, his words level and cool. 

“The Village area is nice. Sort of a family area. Kids, dog, two parent households.” Sebastian paused again, daring to really challenge the black of Joseph’s eyes. “The kind of families with one parent at home and one at work. Work that keeps them away at odd hours. Odd hours similar the ones you seem to like.” Finally, those heavy lids flinched. “Maybe one parent stays home and gets a little lonely…”

The immaculate mold of the lean detectives face had broken, the skin along his jaw growing taunt. “Maybe you’re full of shit.” 

“Or maybe Joseph wants something else in the bedroom.” 

The temperature of Joseph’s voice dropped and the tone smoothed out like receding waves. “Fuck off.” 

“Is she married, Joseph?”

“You're showing your ass right now.” 

The veteran didn’t blink and he didn’t look away. “Is there kids?” 

Joseph’s mouth went tight and the muscles of his jaw twitched, he turned his face away to look somewhere beyond the wall. 

“That’s fucked up, Joseph.” The seat moaned as the detective leaned back, suddenly tired. 

Joseph’s voice barely escaped his throat. “Don’t tell me about fucked up.” 

 

THANK YOU DETECTIVE, THAT WILL SUFFICE.

Both men jumped at the pop of the intercom. 

There was a waiting after that, a white flag moment before the agent reappeared at the doorway looking as bored as before. 

“Good job getting into your partner’s personal affairs there, detective. I’m sure he’ll really have your back from now on.” His arm flicked and something small twinkled across the room. Sebastian caught the little key in one palm. 

“Did I pass?” His tone barely made it a question.

The agent smoothed his tie and sports coat. “That’s my favorite part, detective, that’s for me to know and you to find out.” Sebastian huffed in return as the agent offered a customary and unfriendly smile. “I’ll be on my way, gentlemen, we appreciate your cooperation and hope you have a a good afternoon.”

The door swung closed and Joseph rubbed at the back of his neck with his free hand while the other flexed its fingers, the noisy restrains tacking against the metal chair. “That was weird. What was the point of this?” Getting no response he eyed his partner and found him staring down the door. 

“Seb.” 

He slowly moved his eyes away from the door, not at all trusting of it’s silence, and finally let his gaze meet the others. 

“Thanks for playing along.” Sebastian felt like his face showed every bit of his whiskey flu. His stubble was starting to itch and teeth drier than ever. 

“Heh, thanks for starting a rumor that I’m now seeing a married woman.” He gave a short laugh but there was no humor in Sebastian's face. Joseph swallowed and eyed the tiny key balled in his partner’s fist. “So you gonna let me rot or….?”

The older man examined the key with a lazy consideration and pursed lips. Joseph’s fox eyes narrowed in suspicion as the key disappeared beyond the table and joined the lighter deep in the pockets of Sebastian work trousers. 

“We aren't done talking yet.”


End file.
